[ad_1]
Whether or not the Inexperienced Bay Packers prolong their season one other week and knock off the top-seeded 49ers stays to be seen.
However they’ve acquired the oldest motivation card within the deck at their disposal they usually’re going to play it. The Packers opened as 10-point underdogs in most sportsbooks.
“It’s been an extended season,” Packers quarterback Jordan Love mentioned Sunday after the No. 7 seed surprised second-seeded Dallas 48-32. “We’ve been counted out rather a lot, so simply the way in which all people retains battling, retains competing and simply getting higher. It’s an ideal feeling.”
Inexperienced Bay is 10-8 and at one level was 3-6. There have been occasions early within the season when mere first downs had been laborious to come back by, so counting out the Packers of their first yr with out Aaron Rodgers appeared just like the prudent factor to do.
“Individuals can proceed to doubt us, that’s tremendous,” working again Aaron Jones mentioned after racking up 118 yards on 21 carries with three touchdowns. “We love the underdog mentality, the underdog strategy. What are individuals going to say subsequent? We’re excited to see that . . . you set a observe in your reminiscence financial institution. In case you really feel disrespected you’ve acquired to do one thing about it.”
There wasn’t loads of 49ers discuss on the postgame victory podium as Inexperienced Bay basked within the glow of sending the Dallas-Ft. Value Metroplex into orbit by leaping to a 27-0 lead within the second quarter after which holding on on the finish.
“They’re a really proficient staff,” Love mentioned. “It’s all about getting again to work this week, get within the movie room, see what they’re all about and get again to work. They’re a very good staff and we’ve acquired to get our our bodies again and get again into it.”
Inexperienced Bay coach Matt LaFleur, who labored on the identical workers with the 49ers’ Kyle Shanahan in Washington from 2010-13, has a good suggestion of what the Packers are up in opposition to.
“Clearly we’re actually excited for the following alternative,” LaFleur mentioned. “Going to San Francisco and enjoying top-of-the-line groups within the NFL, we’ll have our work reduce out for us. I’m assuming it’s going to be on a brief week so we’ll must relaxation up.”
Not lengthy after LaFleur left the rostrum, the NFL introduced it will certainly be a brief week for Inexperienced Bay with a 5:15 p.m. kickoff on Saturday evening at Levi’s Stadium.
.@jordan3love finds @WicksDontayvion with a great thing about a move! 🏈
TOUCHDOWN! 🙌#GBvsDAL | #GoPackGo
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/aAxUZpmSiU
— Inexperienced Bay Packers (@packers) January 14, 2024
Of the 49ers’ 4 potential first-round opponents, the Packers had been the one staff the 49ers haven’t seen this season. This time will probably be Love at quarterback slightly than Rodgers, the Packers’ starter within the final 4 playoff video games between the groups. Had LaFleur not put Love again within the recreation when Dallas acquired cosmetically shut within the fourth quarter, he would have had an ideal passer score of 158.3 in his playoff debut. That has by no means been performed earlier than. As an alternative, one remaining incompletion dropped him to 157.2. He was 16 of 21 for 272 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.
Early on in coaching camp, Shanahan raised some eyebrows when he anointed quarterback Brock Purdy the “actual deal.” LaFleur opted for a unique description of Love after he helped take aside the Cowboys.
“Man. Jordan Love. Wow,” LaFleur mentioned. “That’s about all I can say is wow. What he did, the poise he reveals, the command he reveals . . . he’s a dude. He’s an actual dude.”
The “Actual Deal” vs. “The Dude.”
It’s no secret Rodgers, for all his expertise, had grow to be high-maintenance by way of coping with youthful teammates and leaving the group questioning what he would say subsequent whether or not it was about soccer or being “immunized” from COVID-19. Enter Love, who’s low-key, all about soccer and who in his final 9 video games has amassed Rodgers-like stats: 2,422 yards, 21 touchdowns and one interception.
Love was a shock draft choose in 2020 out of Utah State when Rodgers nonetheless had 4 years left on his contract and it made for a clumsy scenario. Life with out Rodgers, who was traded to the New York Jets final spring for a number of draft picks, was tough at 3-6 in mid-November. Now it’s chic.
Love even cracked a smile when requested if it felt good to indicate individuals he was worthy of being the most recent Inexperienced Bay quarterback after Brett Favre and Rodgers.
“It feels nice. I’m making an attempt to cover some smiles,” Love mentioned. “There’s a celebration within the locker room proper now and it feels nice. That’s all I can say.”
And whereas LaFleur wasn’t essentially referencing Rodgers when he mentioned it, there’s a giant change within the staff dynamic with out him.
“There’s a unique vitality about our staff,” LaFleur mentioned. “It’s a lot enjoyable to come back to work with these guys every single day. The way in which they compete and push one another, I’m simply comfortable for them.”
Jones, who has 473 yards speeding in his final 4 video games, has helped give the offense steadiness and made Love even higher.
“We believed in him from the start,” Jones mentioned. “It was not all on him once we couldn’t choose up a primary down. We’ve acquired to be on the identical web page and I believe you see that occuring now. You possibly can hear me by means of the season and different gamers saying, `We’re proper there. We’re proper there.’ We’ve been in a position to recover from that hump.”
LaFleur believes the underdog function can reduce the playoff strain.
“I believe there’s a bit little bit of freedom with that by way of the way you play,” LaFleur mentioned. “These guys, they went for it, and that’s thrilling to see. Each section, you possibly can see it in the way in which we performed.”
[ad_2]
Source link
